The Ambulance Ride

Remember, when I said the hospital only has stairs? Well, today we had to take a patient to the larger hospital in Nairobi. Unfortunately, the patient was unable to walk (very low blood pressure, episodes of syncope etc.) and, as a result, we had to carry the wheelchair down the stairs. But things got a lot worse from here…

Next, we put the patient in the ambulance, which is just a large van with a low bed on the floor of the car. Unfortunately, the roads there are pretty bumpy, and the driving is normally quite crazy. Now, add a fast ambulance ride. At one point, we all flew in the air like cartoon characters. Simultaneously, the bag of IV fluids that was hooked up to the patient flew off the hook and across the van…we were racing to grab it and hang it back up.

However, that wasn’t even the most exciting part. You see, the patient is on a rolling bed that collapses to the ground, such that the wheels are on the floor and are held in place by a track with a safety rod to keep it from moving.

On the way back from the hospital, we hit a very large bump and the patient went flying to the front of the car. The bed slammed on the front chairs, and the patient’s body jerked pretty hard upon impact with the chairs. The safety mechanism had broke, and the bed had come off the track! It kept moving all over the place, and we all scrambled to hold the bed. I had one hand clutching onto bed, one hand grabbing the rod attached to the roof, and braced my feet on the ground to try to stop the bed from rolling everywhere.

Definitely, the most exciting and intense road trip I’ve ever had!

More stories later!

Happy Adventuring!

Gabrianne

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